Course Details

After successfully completing this course, you will be able to:

1. Evaluate technical terms, facts, and principles as related to the legal system and how they influence the operations of higher education institutions.
2. Explain the issues involved in legal and policy decisions, and in terms of ethics.
3. Recommend ethical solutions to resolve conflicts and dilemmas facing higher education professionals
4. Analyze legal and policy issues in higher education, especially through a social justice lens.
5. Assess key court rulings, laws, and policies that establish legal parameters in higher education.
6. Explain the concept of "state action" between public and private institutions.

This course addresses professional competency areas for Student Affairs educators established by the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) and the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) as well as the standards established by the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS).

The sets of standards are based on the following organization: ACPA/NASPA Standards

2018 ACPA & NASPA Professional Competency Standards

1. Personal and Ethical Foundations

• Involves the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to develop and maintain integrity in one’s life and work; this includes thoughtful development, critique, and adherence to a holistic and comprehensive standard of ethics and commitment to one’s own wellness and growth. Personal and ethical foundations are aligned because integrity has an internal locus informed by a combination of external ethical guidelines, an internal voice of care, and our own lived experiences. Our personal and ethical foundations grow through a process of curiosity, refection, and self-authorship.

2. Values, Philosophy, and History

• Involves knowledge, skills, and dispositions that connect the history, philosophy, and values of the student affairs profession to one’s current professional practice. This competency area embodies the foundations of the profession from which current and future research, scholarship, and practice will change and grow. The commitment to demonstrating this competency area ensures that our present and future practices are informed by an understanding of the profession’s history, philosophy, and values.

3. Assessment, Evaluation, and Research

• Focuses on the ability to design, conduct, critique, and use various assessment, evaluation, and research methodologies and the results obtained from them, to utilize assessment, evaluation, and research processes and their results to inform practices and to shape the political and ethical climate surrounding assessment, evaluation, and research AER processes and uses in higher education.

4. Law, Policy, and Governance

• Includes the knowledge, skills, and dispositions relating to policy development processes used in various contexts, the application of legal constructs, compliance/policy issues, and the understanding of governance structures and their impact on one’s professional practice.

5. Organizational and Human Resources

• Includes knowledge, skills, and dispositions used in the management of institutional human capital, financial, and physical resources. This competency area recognizes that student affairs professionals bring personal strengths and grow as managers through challenging themselves to build new skills in the selection, supervision, motivation, and formal evaluation of staff; resolution of conflict; management of the politics of organizational discourse; and the effective application of strategies and techniques associated with financial resources, facilities management, fundraising, technology, crisis management, risk management and sustainable resources.

6. Leadership

• Addresses the knowledge, skills, and dispositions required of a leader, with or without positional authority. Leadership involves both the individual role of a leader and the leadership process of individuals working together to envision, plan, and affect change in organizations and respond to broad-based constituencies and issues. This can include working with students, student affairs colleagues, faculty, and community members.

7. Social Justice and Inclusion

• While there are many conceptions of social justice and inclusion in various contexts, for the purposes of this competency area, it is defined here as both a process and a goal which includes the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to create learning environments that foster equitable participation of all groups while seeking to address and acknowledge issues of oppression, privilege, and power. This competency involves student affairs educators who have a sense of their own agency and social responsibility that includes others, their community, and the larger global context. Student affairs educators may incorporate social justice and inclusion competencies into their practice through seeking to meet the needs of all groups, equitably distributing resources, raising social consciousness, and repairing past and current harms on campus communities.

8. Student Learning and Development

• Addresses the concepts and principles of student development and learning theory. This includes the ability to apply theory to improve and inform student affairs and teaching practice.

9. Technology

• Focuses on the use of digital tools, resources, and technologies for the advancement of student learning, development, and success as well as the improved performance of student affairs professionals. Included within this area are knowledge, skills, and dispositions that lead to the generation of digital literacy and digital citizenship within communities of students, student affairs professionals, faculty members, and colleges and universities as a whole.

10. Advising and Supporting

• Addresses the knowledge, skills, and dispositions related to providing advising and support to individuals and groups through direction, feedback, critique, referral, and guidance. Through developing advising and supporting strategies that take into account self-knowledge and the needs of others, we play critical roles in advancing the holistic wellness of ourselves, our students, and our colleagues.

After successfully completing this course, you will be able to:

1. Evaluate technical terms, facts, and principles as related to the legal system and how they influence the operations of higher education institutions.
2. Explain the issues involved in legal and policy decisions, and in terms of ethics.
3. Recommend ethical solutions to resolve conflicts and dilemmas facing higher education professionals
4. Analyze legal and policy issues in higher education, especially through a social justice lens.
5. Assess key court rulings, laws, and policies that establish legal parameters in higher education.
6. Explain the concept of "state action" between public and private institutions.

This course addresses professional competency areas for Student Affairs educators established by the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) and the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) as well as the standards established by the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS).

The sets of standards are based on the following organization: ACPA/NASPA Standards

2018 ACPA & NASPA Professional Competency Standards

1. Personal and Ethical Foundations

• Involves the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to develop and maintain integrity in one’s life and work; this includes thoughtful development, critique, and adherence to a holistic and comprehensive standard of ethics and commitment to one’s own wellness and growth. Personal and ethical foundations are aligned because integrity has an internal locus informed by a combination of external ethical guidelines, an internal voice of care, and our own lived experiences. Our personal and ethical foundations grow through a process of curiosity, refection, and self-authorship.

2. Values, Philosophy, and History

• Involves knowledge, skills, and dispositions that connect the history, philosophy, and values of the student affairs profession to one’s current professional practice. This competency area embodies the foundations of the profession from which current and future research, scholarship, and practice will change and grow. The commitment to demonstrating this competency area ensures that our present and future practices are informed by an understanding of the profession’s history, philosophy, and values.

3. Assessment, Evaluation, and Research

• Focuses on the ability to design, conduct, critique, and use various assessment, evaluation, and research methodologies and the results obtained from them, to utilize assessment, evaluation, and research processes and their results to inform practices and to shape the political and ethical climate surrounding assessment, evaluation, and research AER processes and uses in higher education.

4. Law, Policy, and Governance

• Includes the knowledge, skills, and dispositions relating to policy development processes used in various contexts, the application of legal constructs, compliance/policy issues, and the understanding of governance structures and their impact on one’s professional practice.

5. Organizational and Human Resources

• Includes knowledge, skills, and dispositions used in the management of institutional human capital, financial, and physical resources. This competency area recognizes that student affairs professionals bring personal strengths and grow as managers through challenging themselves to build new skills in the selection, supervision, motivation, and formal evaluation of staff; resolution of conflict; management of the politics of organizational discourse; and the effective application of strategies and techniques associated with financial resources, facilities management, fundraising, technology, crisis management, risk management and sustainable resources.

6. Leadership

• Addresses the knowledge, skills, and dispositions required of a leader, with or without positional authority. Leadership involves both the individual role of a leader and the leadership process of individuals working together to envision, plan, and affect change in organizations and respond to broad-based constituencies and issues. This can include working with students, student affairs colleagues, faculty, and community members.

7. Social Justice and Inclusion

• While there are many conceptions of social justice and inclusion in various contexts, for the purposes of this competency area, it is defined here as both a process and a goal which includes the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to create learning environments that foster equitable participation of all groups while seeking to address and acknowledge issues of oppression, privilege, and power. This competency involves student affairs educators who have a sense of their own agency and social responsibility that includes others, their community, and the larger global context. Student affairs educators may incorporate social justice and inclusion competencies into their practice through seeking to meet the needs of all groups, equitably distributing resources, raising social consciousness, and repairing past and current harms on campus communities.

8. Student Learning and Development

• Addresses the concepts and principles of student development and learning theory. This includes the ability to apply theory to improve and inform student affairs and teaching practice.

9. Technology

• Focuses on the use of digital tools, resources, and technologies for the advancement of student learning, development, and success as well as the improved performance of student affairs professionals. Included within this area are knowledge, skills, and dispositions that lead to the generation of digital literacy and digital citizenship within communities of students, student affairs professionals, faculty members, and colleges and universities as a whole.

10. Advising and Supporting

• Addresses the knowledge, skills, and dispositions related to providing advising and support to individuals and groups through direction, feedback, critique, referral, and guidance. Through developing advising and supporting strategies that take into account self-knowledge and the needs of others, we play critical roles in advancing the holistic wellness of ourselves, our students, and our colleagues.